Lava River Cave--Day 3

We slept in a little today. I got up at 8:00 and the rest of the family rolled out of bed around 9:45. Quiet mornings continue to be one of my favorite times of day. It's funny to see how that has changed as my kids have grown. When they were little, I loved the quiet that followed their nightly bedtime. Now, as teenagers who will sleep half the day away if we let them, I get to enjoy quiet mornings.

My plan was to make pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, but the griddle here had different plans. I had to resort to the old school method of using a frying pan on the stove. It has been kind of fun cooking in a different kitchen as it has made me very thankful for what we have at home; like our gas stove!

Tom and I headed to La Pine to help Sara and Wayne with some things at the house. Some of Wayne's relatives arrived while we were there. The day was quickly growing hot and we were getting hungry. We headed back to Sunriver, had some lunch and then headed to Lava River Cave.

The parking lot was full and after we began our descent into the cave, I knew exactly why. It was about 50 degrees versus the surface temp of 95+. It was a welcomed relief! We rented 3 battery powered lights to light our way through the lava cave. If you've ever been to Ape Caves near Cougar, WA. you know what it was like.

 At this point, we were already feeling the cooler air of the cave.

 There were chipmunks scurrying on the rocks outside the cave.

 Doesn't this big, black hole look inviting?

There were a ton of stairs at the mouth of the cave. 

 This is to prove that Kylin was there, too. She wasn't loving the whole dark, cold, cave and hiking thing but she made it through.

Alora and James were our leaders. They had a great time in the cave.

 The cave was quite large most of the time.

 There were a few places where the cave narrowed then it would open up again.

 Tom and I fell back from the rest of the group and spent time looking at many of the unique features of a lava cave.

 Like this double cave. There were two lava caves, one on top of the other. The top one stopped flowing first, then the bottom one cooled.

 These are sand castles made from water and sediment falling to the ground. The entire cave has a sandy (and lava rocky) floor.

The cave narrows to a crawling path at the end. Unfortunately, that portion was closed so this was as far as we could go. 

 We decided to pose for a group picture. A man and boy who traveled near Tom and I through most of the cave took the picture for us in return for us taking one of them. I love nice people!

 Alora and James exited the cave before the rest of us. This is how we found them. They were so proud of themselves. :)

Tonight was our night to host dinner. We made a quick trip into Bend to pick a few things we had forgotten then headed back to prep dinner. The taco bar went over well. People could choose from ground beef, cod (for fish tacos) or nachos. Let's just say, there was very little left. That's a good sign that dinner was good if you ask me!

In the evenings, our deck is in the shade and a breeze picks up. It was the perfect place to gather and eat. As we sat down to eat, look who came by to check us out. This baby was so sweet. It kept making a call to its mother (just a few yards ahead of it) that sounded similar to a cat meow. Most of us had never heard them make noise before. It was pretty adorable.

After dinner and when the bugs started to come out, we adjourned to Sara and Wayne's house to sit around the big table and play Cards Against Humanity. It's always a twisted way to end the night.

Tomorrow will start off with wedding prep and we have reservations for Cowboy Dinner Tree. It is the coolest place in the middle of nowhere. Literally. Until then...